About Michel Fanton

Local Seed Networks as a solution to seed globalisation and plant patenting was on my priority list before it became our life work. In the mid 1970s, 280 family owned seed companies and breeders, become the property of Dutch Shell petroleum. 1000s of unprofitable seeds lines were deleted, replaced by a handful of hybrids. We had 500 million people worldwide who ate only one meal a day, (now it is 1,1 billions approx). These are the events that lead to Jude and I kicking off the Seed Savers Network. We became a part of a worldwide seed consciousness and the seed arm of Permaculture.

The new PC concept was revealed to me in the late 70s when I read the blue Permaculture One. At the time I was transforming an empty paddock into a self-mulching food-forest Fukuoka style with understorey of Accasias and other pionners.
I then met Mollison in 1979 when he was around 50 years old, and invited him to show our then 5 years old project: three steep acres (2 steep hectares) of experimental subtropical food plants system with lesser known edibles amongst hand-dug earthworks: a sort of contoured ditch on a 7 to 10 degree slope.

On meeting Jude, we both set off on seed collecting expeditions along the East Coast Australia and cities, flogging several hundreds Permacutlure books (1 and then 2).
In the following years we were sent to teach Permacuture in a range of countries. Progressively we changed the PDCs curriculum and specialized in seed production and exchanges, seed courses, gave talks.

Back to 2011, we travel six months a year, learning from susbsitence farmers, and their local food systems, making friends, fitting strategic Seed Networks plug-ins into Permaculture projects, NGOs, GOs,, civil societies. We favour indigenous and marginal cultures, urban and rural subsistence farmers.

Before we travel again this September, we have a project to complete and there is room for interns input. A talent (to etch their names?) for a inter-media seed project that calls for: art, social media strategies, journalism, dedication and humour, patience with Jude and me, We will create presentations with excerpt published material (our three handbooks and two docos), logged HDV footage, audio, digital and pre-digital photos, & slides archives., unpublished and published translations of our books and doco, our clips already on youtube.com/seedsavers.
We make ourselves available for teaching and consulting on seed issues and local seed systems.

Updates

Part of the Solidarity Seed Tours that we take part in on behalf of The Seed Savers Network. This time starting in The Gambia with Concern Universal and Senegal. Rarely farmers need to learn how to save seeds especially when they are villagers. However fa